Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Origins ❯ But will you sleep? ( Chapter 1 )

Origins

 

Naruto's always pissed at me after training. I remember being the same with Sarutobi-sensei. Usually he calms down after a few bowls of instant ramen, but today seems to be different.

 

I sigh and rub my hand across my face. It's hard to ignore someone when you sleep in the same tent, but Naruto's pulling it off well. It's been three hours, and he hasn't said a word to me. I peer out the flap of the tent. He's staring at his hands. I peer a bit further out of the tent to see what he's holding. The setting sun glints off a piece of metal in his hands.

 

During the day's training, I landed a hard blow on him, harder than I intended. The kid's forehead protector tore clean off and hit a rock. It scratched badly. He and I both know it's impossible to fix. As I watch, he stands and hurls it away, then tumbles back onto the ground, sitting cross-legged and staring at his hands.

 

Shit. He's pissed.

 

Sighing, I retrieve my bottle of sake and a couple of cups from their hiding place between my pillow and knapsack. A peace offering should placate the hyperactive punk.

 

I step outside the tent and tap Naruto's shoulder with the bottle. "Yo. Naruto."

 

He doesn't look up at me. He doesn't even move.

 

I sit down next to him. "I've got booze."

 

No luck.

 

I sigh again. "Sorry. Calm down and get drunk with me."

 

He finally looks at me, but he's far from placated. Oh yes, I know that look. He's hurt.

 

Obviously, I've already had a few swigs. Uzumaki Naruto is not <i>hurt</i>. Girls who've just been dumped are <i>hurt</i>.

 

"Not enough," he mumbles, looking at the forehead protector on the ground some feet away. "Stupid thing...I liked it. It was special."

 

I hold out the bottle. "Get drunk and tell me about it."

 

He glares, but takes a cup. I hide my grin, smelling triumph like I smell my impending hangover. I pour us both sake and we drink. Naruto takes it well; doesn't cough or anything. I am suspicious. He's been drinking before.

 

A few bottles later, I am disappointed. Far from lessening the tension, the sake's made Naruto gloomier.

 

"'Snot the firsh' time I been drunk," he mutters, taking another gulp. We've retired the cups and moved to drinking directly from the bottle. "Coupla timesh...once wi' Shakura-chan, lil' bit 'go." He leers. I am a bit disturbed and a bit proud. He looks like me. "An'...an' once wi' Sasuke-`tard." He slumps over.

 

"I got drunk fer the first time with Orochimaru," I say. I have always been proud of my ability to speak clearly when drunk off my ass.

 

But that particular incident hurts. No. No, hurting is for girls and Narutos who aren't hammered.

 

"Eh. Bet 'e...'e pasht ou' after two drinks," says Naruto blearily.

 

I neglect to mention that Naruto is on the verge of passing out himself. "No. He can hold his sake. Was surprised."

 

Naruto nods, eyelids drooping. "Shashke too." He shakes the bottle at the air before downing a mouthful or four. "Bashtard dared me. Shaid I couln't take it. Could." He grins proudly. "'E wuz jush' as tanked. Bashtard shaid I wuz...wuz shtill a kid." He stomps the ground. "Hit bashtard, showed 'im." He falls silent, swallowing the last of the bottle and studying his toes.

 

I raise my eyebrows. It might just be the bastard child of my gay side and my perversion, but I am strongly suspicious of Naruto “showing” Sasuke up when the two of them were both drunk. Especially when I consider that the last time I saw him, Sasuke was the gayest thirteen-year-old I'd ever seen. No heterosexual teenaged boy can resist the deadly combination of fangirls and hormones.

 

Orochimaru was a bit like that. Tsunade always had a sort of thing for him, and once she grew tits, I couldn't figure out how he didn't bang her the moment they had an available flat space. Hm, maybe not completely flat. Hell, anywhere there's enough room would work.

 

Time for more sake. I grab the next bottle, pop it open and gleefully pour half of it down my throat.

 

Naruto, if he's anything like me, is a perverted, closet bisexual, just like Sasuke is the world's biggest fairy. Heh. I called Orochimaru a fairy once. He hit me. He had a thing for hitting. S&M and that sort of kink.

 

Oh, look. Speaking of hitting, the ground hits hard, especially when Naruto's rock-hard skull is on top of it. My head bounces off of it and lands on his neck. Ow. Oh, his neck is comfier. This works. My vision blurs. Hm. Sleep sounds like a nice thing.

 

Naruto mumbles something. It rumbles through the back of his neck and in my cheek, and lulls me to sleep.

 

*~*~*

 

Tsunade's watching Orochimaru over the top of the notebook she's scribbling in. Orochimaru's watching me through squinted eyes. I watch nothing in particular, gazing out the window and pretending to not care about either of them.

 

Orochimaru's staring at me. Fucking hell, he pisses me off. But I won't look at him back. He'll see.

 

How does he stay quite for so long? Tsunade's damn slug summon talks more. Usually I care less about what it says, but - wait, I usually don't care about what Orochimaru says either.

 

Still staring at me. Does he ever blink?

 

"Alright, jackass!" I roar, leaping out of my chair and pointing at him. "I challenge you!"

 

Tsunade stops pretending to be busy and looks up. Orochimaru merely raises his creepy, creepy eyebrows.

 

"To what?" he replies calmly.

 

Damn him and his...not-angriness! "To sake! Lots and lots of sake!"

 

Tsunade rolls her eyes and goes back to her notebook while I dash to the counter and demand a shitload of sake.

 

The alcohol smudges a few hours. I play along, like any good waking dreamer.

 

Tsunade sighs. She's dragging us both up the stairs to our hotel room by the arms. It's undignified. I ignore it. "I should report this to Sarutobi-sensei.”

 

“Please don't,” I say amicably.

 

“…but I'll forget it only because I'm worse. I just have the taste not to do it while on a mission, and I can take my alcohol better than either of you louts.” She snorts. “And they say men can hold it better. I'm going to make up something for the bitch of a hangover you two are going to have tomorrow. Go into your room and finish your half-assed manly grandstanding where I can't see it."

 

She shoves us into our room and slams the door behind us. Orochimaru lands on his ass on the bed. I don't fall over. The Great Jiraiya does not fall over. The Great Jiraiya <i>bends</i> over, grabs his teammate's collar and jerks him to his feet.

 

"You're drunk," Orochimaru hisses.

 

I sway on my feet and attempt a smirk. It was probably more of a leer. “Drunker than you.”

 

He sneers. “Prove it.”

 

I kiss him. Hard. Enough to taste blood when he snakes his tongue into my mouth and tries to feel me up. I wedge my knee in between his legs and shove him onto the bed. No groping. The Great Jiraiya will not be groped.

 

We have drunken sex. Bad drunken sex, but I'm on top and I'm in control and God dammit, I <i>won</i>.

 

Next door, Tsunade is singing to herself as she pounds away with a mortar and pestle, and the song drifts through the thin wall. I can hear it easily. We were quiet.

 

<i>Please, please forgive me,

But I won't be home again.

Maybe someday you'll look up,

And, barely conscious, you'll say to no one:

"Isn't something missing?"</i>

 

Orochimaru scrapes his teeth along my collarbone. I grab a handful of his hair and jerk it back. He snarls, chokes a growl. Good. No sound. Not with Tsunade just on the other side of the paper-thin hotel wall, mixing up a medicine for the two men she loves more than almost anything else in the world, the two men giving in to a haze of aggression and rivalry and intoxication in the bed next door.

 

<i>You won't cry for my absence, I know

You forgot me long ago.

Am I that unimportant?

Am I so insignificant?

Isn't something missing?

Isn't someone missing me?</i>

 

I rake my nails down his back. It's a very womanish thing for me to do. I'm rather proud of myself for lowering to that level. Orochimaru's breath catches, and he gasps, but we're still quiet enough to hear her.

 

<i>Even though I'm the sacrifice,

You won't try for me, not now.

Though I'd die to know you love me,

I'm all alone

Isn't someone missing me?</i>

 

He's screaming. Almost. It's silent, but I see the strain in his throat and his face. I cover his mouth. He bites my hand, shuddering in anticipation.

 

<i>And if I bleed, I'll bleed,

Knowing you don't care

And if I sleep just to dream of you

I'll wake without you there

Isn't something missing?

Isn't something...</i>

 

I catch Orochimaru's scream in my palm. The Great Jiraiya does not scream. The Great Jiraiya quietly falls on top of his bitch when he's done. He grunts and almost tries to shove me off, but I've decided I'll sleep right where I am, thankyouverymuch and good night.

 

As the black spots spread over my eyes, I hear Tsunade still singing, still thwack, thwack, thwacking with her mortar and pestle.

 

<i>Even though I'm the sacrifice,

You won't try for me, not now.

Though I'd die to know you love me,

I'm all alone.

Isn't someone missing me?

Isn't someone…</i>

 

*~*~*

 

I open my eyes, covered in a cold sweat. Apparently the third round of the Chuunin Exam is being held in my cranium. I groan and roll off of Naruto and onto my bedroll, never at any point really awake.

 

Naruto cringes and whimpers in his sleep.

 

"Sasuke..."